Recording Rock Guitars

Lesson 16 of 20

Axe-Fx Tones

Recording Rock Guitars

Lesson 16 of 20

Axe-Fx Tones

Lesson Info

Axe-Fx Tones

Acts at it this is a this is another really cool thing that comes with axe effects it's a it's an easier way to edit the presets and save things and transform to your computer and all kinds of like that when you're using the act effects there's a bunch of buttons even though I've memorized how to use that and I'm pretty quick on it you know maybe it's it's easier for someone to use this so if you're at home at a home studio it's really awesome toa to be able to edit things this this easily okay so um this is not really setting so I'm gonna grab that guitar really quick just so you guys can hear what I'm doing um no this is fine because there's certain there's certain it does anyone have a pick a good one preferably oh there's one right here on the guitar look at that and it's my favorite pick okay, so let's make sure that we got this on the right mode so he's messing around with that I just wanted teo uh share a couple useful useful points of information from the chat room peanut polic...

e uh says once peanut police was talking about a feature in the expects called tone match you and change is going to talk about it a little bit yes so tone matching is a similar idea to to how the kemper creates profile which does involve capturing the qatar's tonal signature in other words the you know the body and all those characteristics of pickups and all that whereas the eye are capturing in creation process does not include that so the I r is just the cabinet mike pre emp tone matching includes the guitar as well so andrew's going to touch on that a little bit but I just wanted to mention that now well he's pushing some buttons over there all right this has I'm playing through an actual cabinet so I'm gonna turn off okay, so this kind of sounds ah a little dead and if you get that problem it's and you're playing through an actual guitar cabinet it's probably because you have the the cabinet turned on so we'll just bypass this and you'll hear different so immediately it has has a lot more games so actually right now um this is kind of low gain but I'll just go through the basic settings of this so anybody has an ax effects tune in pay attention here we go there's some really cool settings that I love thee um this right here the the drive part is just like our tube screamer in real life but it's it's you know it's it's modeled eternal love is the one that I really like I'm actually not sure what it's modeled after but it's one of the more pleasing sounding uh distortion pedals that we have in here so um these are basically actually all the settings for this r right here on the screen so if you want to do a screen cap of that are or whatever I would actually put probably put a little more driving this because kind of ah well game right now yeah so there you go that's just with a little more gain um and then the amp I have is the sea a three lead that one might be construction by axe effects if anybody wants I'm just actually gonna click through these and you can take screen caps if you want whatever so this is off um and as I'm going through these I'm just going to talk about certain things that I really really like uh the the thunk is a cool feature it has that really nasty low end like if you're a lot of people know the axe effects were doing gent style stuff and they have this weird like lo and when they do, like kind of clean palm you'd type stuff and if you crank this up but it really I love this cabinet but anyway, if you want to mess with that if you're into that style of sound, you can get a really low um uh low end out of that there's also another pretty cool uh one called I think it's called pick attack we'll forever that is anyway let's, move along. I have a gate on this. I know I was talking about gates earlier and I want to touch on this one more time whenever I do use a gate is going to be after the distortion so if you're recording a band and you have d I tracked that you're working on you want to make sure that you're not just gating while you're recording before the amp because then when you actually get it mixed or you send it off to an engineer somebody like me you suddenly we have all this noise to deal with instead of just sending it through the amp. So whenever I do things like this, I have a very mild gate just to get rid of the the hiss or the buzz, not guitar noise, I don't use it to get rid of guitar noise. That is what should be edited out. Okay, so okay, clean the axe effects has probably one of my favorite clean tones. This is just, uh I don't know how to describe the strings are new, you get a really nice attack on the on the tone and the clarity is absolutely incredible in my opinion. So let me just point out the drive and amp, I know a lot of guys don't have access effects I'm trying not to, you know, bore anybody, but I have for the drive I have the tape distortion on you know just a little bit just to give it a little bit of grit ah um and then and that I really like is ah this nineteen eighty seven x trouble and I can't find another one that sounds better than this again at the gate. Okay, so another let's get into a cool tone um base you can do based with this too. Okay, so this stone I really want to talk about you can actually even if you don't have an axe effects these things that I'm going to talk about are certain things that you can apply to your own guitar tone if you have you know, in your dear w but thiss one ah, when you're playing with that you can almost hear on oh sound like a like a choir and this is a really, um, cool thing that I like about the axe effects it's called form it which simulates a voice so you could there's actually something in pro tools called the it's like a voice box or something like that but when you put this on it almost sounds like there's a choir of angels saying with you ah that's a cool techniques you can use in er if you split the signal one is like really reverb doubt and clean and then the other one is really reverb doubt with the voice on it. So you get both, and I also have ah, ah, pitch shifter that has that that really high shimmering sound um, plus a delay that is kind of d tuning as you play. And I absolutely love that kind of stuff. And I know a lot of the people that in this genre, the niche that I kind of usually do aa lot of people are doing this kind of atmospheric stuff and, uh, again that that amp is the same as the cleaning. So question for you when you use the ax, is it generally through a cabinet like this that you, mike or do you run it? Direct? Great question. I usually run it direct with the impulse, but you can absolutely use it with a cabinet I really like using with the cabinet it has. It adds a little more life into it. If you have. If you have the cabinet that you can run it through it's going toe really help out with the sound of it, so maybe just experiment with it both ways and see what works better for your music. Yeah, yeah. So I really I just wanted I know this is kind of a long section, but the certain few things I pointed out about this are you very important to me and important to I think the tone of the ax effects and again, if you're playing through an actual cabinet, you need to make sure that you turn off the the simulated cabinet. Okay, so let's talk about tone matching with, um the the ex effects whenever you run, you can run a signal of take your favorite band some time. Apparently I've heard of people doing this while the guitar tone of under this lead or ah rhythm even if it's in a mix, I heard that people are actually doing this. I've never done it with something that was in the mix, but I've heard of people getting pretty cool results, but you run your favorite guitar tone. The best thing is, if you have ah um state let's take the ghost inside, for example, they have certain parts were just playing the rhythm guitar yeah, isolated spot so you would take that little thing and run it through the tone match you put in a tone matching block? Uh, yeah. Here it is. You just put in a tone matching block uh, you take off the cabinet or whatever and then you play through it and it analyzes it's it's kind of kind of like the camper it's definitely different, but it's a it's a way to get on impulse of of a cabinet kind of like that person was talking about earlier where you can get the characteristics of the guitar a little bit in the body and all that kind of stuff so that's another cool feature of the ax effects um and uh whenever you start, you need to get a tone that that is close if it's a distorted tone you want that you like, you need to make sure that you're putting it on a distorted tone on the axe effects. Yeah, cool. Okay, so key takeaways um should you buy an axe effects? I think keith and I really went over. You know any scenario that you can possibly go over? Are you going to play life? Are you going to play through cabinet? Do you have access to other amps? Um, do you want a ton of effects also live to use like these really cool river bs and you know this for voice format thing, would you want to in one package? Would you do like the sound of your pedals and stuff like that? Right? And another huge thing to point out is the ax effects is also a recording interface where the camper is not oh, that's true so you would need, you know, a separate interface to plug into with the camper words you can use the axe effects as your interface right so that's a that's a pretty big fundamental difference there so I couldn't say absolutely get this or absolutely get that you know they're two different things that depends on your situation you khun get awesome results with both so um it always comes down to what are your needs um so please I need thio campus eyes enough the impulse responses really what made me fall in love with ex effects so much that's that's why I like it so much um and remember it's only one part of the tone pie especially if you don't have so on that note we had a question the chat room that really underscores your last point there and I think I know how you're going to answer this if you don't answer it the right way I'll answer it for you again okay uh question is so if let's say you have some expensive preemption io's like wade studio are pretty much all professional studios and then pod farm would you get the same results like axe effects um I mean I don't I don't think so would you get the same results like axe effect? Well basically like make it if you get a lot of if you get some nice pre amps uh and other gear are you going to get the same kind of result? Basically if you get the same gear that you have our union the same tones that you have oh um no I don't think so because whatever whatever guitarist is playing and uh you can't even get a similar one you really have to go back and look at all the things that we've been talking about um and the gear is only one little piece of that that tone pie that we love so much um but when it guitarist is in the studio you know I'm I'm really pushing them to perform their best and uh, you know, trying whenever you're when you recorded somebody who's really experienced they have all these things in mind at all times so uh you can guarantee on the quality of the product but if you have anything to add to that no that's pretty much what you know that's pretty much where I was headed with it is you know, I I guarantee you that of everybody here in this room uh we could all take a turn playing that guitar, seeing who has the best tone I guarantee that keith is going to sound better than all of us put together on and the magic ingredient there is keith um, right, so I think that that you answer his question that somebody could get all the same gears he wasn't going to sound like tom denny no, because it's not tom danny, right? So you should hire keith without but yes, you know what? When your when you are in a bigger studio and you have friends like keith and stuff like that, who you can call, maybe they're close by or, you know, they're friends of the studio, sometimes they will come in and help out whether they're being paid or it's a favor, you know, whatever, if you have the opportunity to have someone that's excellent play on your album, by all means, do that don't have an ego about, you know, I have played guitar for this long, whatever if someone sounds better than you and you know it, you know, let's, make the whole situation a little more relaxed and try everyone out and, you know, be try to be open minded one things, a lot of people at home, I don't know, and they won't know unless they're friends with the right people is a lot of these bands they listen to it's entirely possible that the guitarist the person listed as guitarist in the album did not play the guitars on the album, and that doesn't mean that he isn't a good guitarist just means he wasn't the right person for that particular sound and exactly that's just how it is sometimes someone khun shred, but then they can't play rhythm and make it sound right, and vice versa, so, um but just how it happens and and if you know that going into situation, it could be easier for you and everybody involved one little piece of information here from snickers bar fifty, who is been in the chat rooms for the past for the entire class. Awesome. Thank you. Yes, for a lot of good questions. I think I understand this just as adamant. Federation, if you tone match with the expects and have access to the original d I, for example, when you do your own albums, you can feed the expects the original track, which, I guess is the term ease, then. Or the d a and the finished track, which is micro signal. This way, the tone matching is very, very close. And you can take away your tone as you can with the camper. So it sounds to me like you have the d I you have the mike and then the mic signal, and then the expects has all the information it needs. Kind of fill in the gaps between the two. So if anyone is working the tone mattress on the expects, maybe give that a shot sounds like sounds like a cool it's like, fine tuning on the kemper.

Class Description

A great guitar sound is the centerpiece of modern rock, metal, pop-punk, and metalcore. Join producer Andrew Wade (A Day to Remember, The Ghost Inside, The Word Alive, etc) for an intensive look into the rock guitar techniques every producer and engineer needs to know.
In this two-day course, Andrew will teach you everything you need to know about creating huge, thick guitar tones. You’ll learn how to prep and setup, and develop best practices for tracking guitars. He'll cover both real amp and amp sims, mixing in your DAW, and more.
Whether you’re recording tracks at home or in a professional studio, this course will give you concrete, easy-to-apply techniques for taking your guitar sounds to the next level.

a Creativelive Student

Berklee College of Music Graduate here '03. I came across a snippet of this course on youtube and the tip about HP the DI to get low end was enough for me to decide to buy the course. One of the things I found so great about this course is how well creativeLive has put this together. From the high def multi-camera shoot, to the screen capture, to the included downloadable slides and Wade's Mesa cabinet IR, the production is very well put together. Kudos to creativeLive, you are doing the right thing.
I was very impressed how articulate Andrew Wade was, not to mention that he was willing to share his production techniques. He really thought this through and takes you from very basic steps for preparation prior to tracking, to editing, all the way through to mixing. Additionally, Wade does this all without ego. What a like-able guy!
I'd recommend this course to any aspiring engineer/DIY band member, especially if you are going after super tight, highly-polished guitar tracks we see in today's modern productions. The course is a look inside the mind of a talented and caring audio engineer and his philosophy/full-disclosure-techniques for recording guitar. Awesome. Think of it this way...if you have $99 play money and you're thinking of buying a plug-in over this course, please reconsider. The techniques you learn in this course will last you a lifetime and will improve your sound dramatically.
Looking forward to more audio production related content in the future!

Chris Dimich

This class was extremely helpful! I learned soooo much. Andrew is a pro and it is absolutely worth the money. Specifically the tuning section of the class. Did not think to put this much effort into tuning, but it makes perfect sense! You can have the tightest band, with the best musicians, the most expensive gear, with amazing tones, but if they are even slightly out of tune its literally a bottleneck for the whole sound of the song. Thanks Andrew!

a Creativelive Student

Awesome, I am a big fan of A Day to Remember and aways wanted to know how their songs were made. Now I know some nice techniques by their own producer.
I thing this workshop is not only for producers but for every person who play on a band.
Now CreativeLive should call Rick Rubin to do the same.